Sunday, 27 May 2012

Dozy Sunday

I came up to the boat this morning, at the end of a night shift. It was my fourth night in five, so I was glad that the drive was easy and I arrived just before 9am. Having unpacked the car, I changed the bed and put the washing machine on. After a few minutes I realised that it works better if the water is turned on.

While the machine was on, I got to work cleaning the Squirrel stove, which I'm hoping won't be needed for a few months. I also stowed the chimney, although really it needs replacing. The handle is hanging on by a thread, and one of the struts on the coolie hat is broken. Maybe there'll be chimney deals at the Crick show next weekend.

Once I'd hung the washing out to dry in the cratch, I set off for a walk to Cosgrove. I'd noticed from the Free Spirit blog last night that they were moored above the lock, so I thought I'd see if they were still there. They weren't; they must have left pretty early this morning. So I walked past the lock to the aqueduct, where a day boat crossing.

On the way back I popped into the caravan park shop to get something for lunch, then wandered back along the towpath. The way the sun was shining on Cosgrove Bridge really showed up how the stone has been weathered.

Back at the boat, I shelved any plans for washing the side: it was just too hot. Then after lunch I was overocme by tiredness. I went for a quick lie down, and woke up a couple of hours later. Maybe now the sun has moved round, I might get round to at least cleaning the windows on the pontoon side this evening.

The marina is full of swallows skimming the water. I was looking out the front doors earlier, when a swallow flew right inside the cratch, before making a sharp u-turn as flitting off again. Over the past couple of hours, a whole procession of boats have returned to the marina. The turn from the Stoke Bruerne direction is very sharp, and some helmsmen have mastered how to do much better than others!

It will be an early night for me, as I have one more shift to do before a couple of weeks off for the Crick boat show next weekend. Tuesday will be a prep day, and I'll set off of Wednesday - the day the weather is due to change. Of course in a normal year, this would have been the bank holiday weekend, and we'd have been sweltering at the boat show. Let's hope moving the holiday weekend doesn't turn out to be a bad idea.